I make bad jokes about Monty-style code. I don't like to read or modify it. I love to run it in production. It never crashes. It never leaks memory. I exaggerate a little bit but not too much. It is remarkably stable.
This is an amazing accomplishment. Alas some of the senior developers who did that at MySQL have since left. Another senior developer left this week. I hope this trend does not continue.
Everyone can be replaced. Smart people can be found. But smart and productive people are not as widely available and it takes a while to figure out how things are done in MySQL. I know because I have made a lot of mistakes while trying to make things better.
Perhaps the Google response is appropriate. Everyone gets a 10% raise and a $1000 holiday bonus.
I did not submit this to http://planet.mysql.com
Friday, November 19, 2010
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This kind of code is indeed fun to write but believe me is no fun at all to maintain. Up to the point that you give serious consideration to redoing it.
ReplyDeleteI'm also sad to see good people leave, but I don't think money can stop this. That's why I like to think about this as an opportunity. Nature doesn't tolerate vacuum :)
I agree with you. A raise and a bonus makes things better when the problem is low pay but otherwise might not help much. I won't suggest there is a problem as i don't work there. I just regret that several talented people are not there. But I am happy that they are at new places that might be a better fit for them.
ReplyDeleteAnd yes there is a lot of opportunity for others.
You are very right when you say "smart and productive people are not as widely available", and though everyone can be replaced there is so much more that is to be done whenever someone new joins in like training and stuff!!
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